(Closed) Which Doctor Should I See?

I’m sorry Bees. My questions are popping up everywhere now. I work in a rural clinic. We are very small with only 7 providers staffed. I usually go 75 miles away to get my exams, and that is where I will be delivering no matter what.

At the clinic I work at, there is a female doctor who can oversee my pregnancy and do all the checkups and ultasounds until I am due, which is when she will refer me to the doctor that will deliver my baby. One of the gals that just had a baby said this is a great route to go because one, I wouldn’t have to take a whole day off of work to travel 75 miles, and two, she does a really good job overseeing the pregnancy.

My question is should I go this route OR would it be better to suck it up and travel those miles for the sake of getting to know my doctor? When my mom was pregnant with me she said it didn’t matter because the doctor delivering her baby had a child of his own, so she had a completely different doctor anyway.

Saving up those extra hours would be awesome, but on the other hand getting to know the doctor delivering my baby might be a better route to go.

Maybe you could just go in for a consultation with the delivering doctor to get to meet him? There’s not a 100% chance that he will deliver you on that day anyways. You could technically still end up with someone you’ve never met before.

There are tons of appointments to go to, so I’d save the time and miles! I’m not super picky about who my doctor is though, as long as their competent and relatively friendly I’m good to go.

The second option isn’t a bad option and with all the times you have to see your doctor, it’s definitely more convenient. It’s possible that you may not even get the OB you are used to when you actually deliver since a lot of them belong to a group of OBs on rotation. For example, my OB will deliver all patients during normal business hours, but if I went into labor at night, she is part of a rotation of six OBs so there’s a chance I won’t get her. With this in mind, it’s very similar to your situation of having one doctor for the pregnancy and a second one for the actual delivery.

I think it depends on how comfortable you feel with strangers. I personally think that when we get to this point I will be fine making nice with a nurse, having my husband there to support me, and letting the Dr catch the baby whether I know them or not. Unless they’re an asshole. In my experience you spend more time with the nurses than the Drs anyway. They’re just there as baby catchers and to check your dilation etc. No gaurantee’s your dr will even be the one to deliver unless you had a scheduled c section.

Another worthwhile factor to weigh is your April due date: how much driving do you want to be doing for appointments during winter and early spring in North Dakota? It depends on how much of it is highway driving, etc., but I grew up there and, in addition to the baseline cost in time and hassle, that would be a lot of potentially not-fun driving during February and March for your bi-weekly and weekly appointments as your pregnancy advances.

@megz06: the hospital where I’m delivering uses “laborists”. These are hospital based physicians who are only staffed to deliver babies. Every person I have asked about this has said they did not care WHO delivered the baby. I am certain I will feel that way and am not concerned. Will it matter to you? Only you know that!

@KCKnd2: OMG I totally didn’t even think about that. The winters here (and spring apparently from last spring) are SO unpredictable.

I think you guys all make great points. I am going to stick around here (especially after kcknd2 reminded my spacy pregnancy brain that the driving in ND sucks ass in the winter) and get all of it done where I can just walk upstairs to see her. I will still need to drive to get the baby delivered, but I don’t really care who delivers it as long as he/she can catch 🙂

@megz06: My mom’s OB/GYN spent less than 10 minutes total in the hospital room during labor and delivery for my sister. He checked on my mom twice and then caught my sister as she popped out. The nurses spent more time in the room and made a majority of the checks and since the nurses were hospital staff we had never met before my mom went into labor.